I was doing clinics where I brought a lot of other Major Leaguers down there. So, I signed with the Yankees, became a big leaguer for a few years, and then I began to do a lot of community work in Curaçao. I was playing three sports, but I felt like I had to focus on one at that point because there was attention coming in from different angles to play professionally. My dad was the captain of the national team, and I played soccer up until I was 16. When I got to Newark Airport, the Yankees had a limo waiting for me, which was pretty cool. I made the flight, barely, but my bags didn’t make it. I explained that I had just been called up to the Yankees, and they let me cut to the front of the line. I got to the airport in Providence, Rhode Island, and there was a long line. Everyone was going crazy on the island, but I was just worried about getting to New York. She was nice enough to call my parents without charging me, and I got to talk to them for a few minutes. In the meantime, I went to the front desk at the old Days Inn hotel in Pawtucket, and I asked the woman there if she could place a call to my parents in Curaçao. Someone had to then go to the stadium to let me into the clubhouse. I had to wake up our trainer, so that he could call the Pawtucket trainer on his home phone. The Pawtucket stadium was locked, so I couldn’t just walk in and grab my equipment. Of course, back then, none of us had cell phones, so I couldn’t call anyone as easily as you could today. and told me that I had been called up and that I had an 11 a.m. We were playing in Pawtucket against the Red Sox’ affiliate, and Rick got on the phone with me at 8 a.m. HM: It started very early in the morning with a call from Rick Down, who was our manager in Triple-A (Columbus).
I didn’t experience the full-blown struggles that most guys go through because I was moving up so fast and breaking records. We were all in Double-A the next year, and halfway through that 1988 season, I was in Triple-A. A bunch of us started moving up really fast. That team was really good Buck Showalter was the manager, and we had Kevin Maas, Jason Maas and Jim Leyritz. I was promoted to Fort Lauderdale in August of that year, and we won the 1987 Florida State League championship. Then I went to Prince William, and I broke the team record with 28 home runs. I was an All-Star my first year, in the Gulf Coast League. Those times were hard, but almost immediately, I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. The room was $150 a night, so we each chipped in what we could. During my first year, I had two roommates in Sarasota, Florida, and we slept in three beds next to each other all summer because that was all that we could afford. Traveling on buses and staying in hotels that weren’t that great made it a bit of a challenge. That’s pretty special after all of the years that have gone by. Just about all of the fan mail I get with requests for autographs consists of photos or baseball cards from when I was playing for the Yankees. I played for so many different teams after I left the Yankees, and I coached for 10 years in San Francisco, winning three championships there, but people still associate me with the Yankees. Regardless of where else I played, people always remembered me as a Yankee. Also, people respect me for the work that I’ve done on and off of the field, and that all started with the Yankees. The things I learned in those first few years is the foundation of what I became in the game.
But coming back some 30 years later, it gave me the chance to think about all that I learned in this organization. When you get signed by a team at 18 years old and you leave your family and the place that you’re from to go into a must-win environment, it’s a lot to handle. HM: Well, it absolutely means something to me.